DHAKA: Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have pledged $3bn to fund medical research over the next decade.

At a press conference in San Francisco, they said their ultimate goal was to “cure, prevent or manage all diseases by the end of the century”, reports the BBC.

The funds will be distributed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which they created in December 2015.

Tech leaders are increasingly turning their attention to health.

Earlier in the week, Microsoft said it intended to “solve” cancer by using artificial intelligence tools.

Google’s DeepMind unit is working with the NHS to find a way to use computers to more accurately diagnose diseases.

And IBM and MIT announced a tie-up earlier this week to develop AI-based systems that could help clinicians improve the care of elderly and disabled patients.

Even so, the Chan Zuckerberg plan is marked by its ambition.

Zuckerberg said that at present 50 times more money was spent on treating people who are sick than on curing the diseases that would stop them getting ill in the first place, and added that this needed to change.

BDST: 1202 HRS, SEP 22, 2016
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